Poll: Romney’s Opposition Helped Trump Slightly More Than it Hurt Him

It remains to be seen if Romney’s meddling in the Republican primary race will have a significant impact on the primary contests being decided today or next week, but according to at least one poll Romney has done more to help Donald Trump than hurt him.

The poll, conducted by Morning Consult, shows Romney’s anti-Trump speech actually persuaded a slightly higher number of people to support Trump.

Thirty-one percent of GOP voters said they were more likely to vote for Trump, while 20 percent said less likely, and 43 percent said it had no impact either way.

The poll, which was conducted March 4 through March 6, also finds that only five percent of Trump supporters said they are now less likely to vote for Trump. And, of those who voted for Romney in 2012, 30 percent said they were more likely to vote for Trump, compared to 20 percent who said less likely.

Personally I figured this would be the result although I did expect it would ultimately help Trump more than this one poll indicates.

The Democratic and Republican presidential primaries are being held in Michigan today and, according to Five Thirty Eight, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are favored to win their respective contests.

Romney’s impact, or a lack thereof, will be greater in the states of Ohio and Florida where Romney has produced robocalls for John Kasich and Marco Rubio respectively. If the above poll is any indication, Romney’s influence will have virtually no net effect.

There just may not be enough people out there who care what Romney says one way or another to tip the race in any direction.

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The poll results don’t surprise me. Donald Trump’s supporters are unlikely to have much respect for Mitt Romney, and are very likely to have their support strengthened by anything negative The Establishment says about the short-fingered vulgarian.

If the GOP really wanted not to have Trump as its presidential nominee this year, it would find a new way of trying to deal with him.